The R-Rated "Naughty Cut" Of Krampus Will Bring The Christmas Horror Movie To 4K

The holiday horror movie "Krampus" is coming to 4K – with a new cut. This November, Scream Factory will release "Krampus: The Naughty Cut," a new version of the film that restores certain scenes and dialogue that ended up on the cutting room floor to ensure a PG-13 rating. And that has me interested! I'm not saying every horror movie needs to be rated R, but when I watched "Krampus," I felt like an R-rating would've gone a long way and resulted in a less constrained film. Now I guess I'll get to see if my theory was correct. 

Scream Factory announced the "Krampus: The Naughty Cut" 4K Blu-ray today, revealing the disc will arrive on November 16, 2021. In "Krampus," 

When his dysfunctional family clashes over the holidays, young Max is disillusioned and turns his back on Christmas. Little does he know, this lack of festive spirit has unleashed the wrath of Krampus: a demonic force of ancient evil intent on punishing non-believers. All hell breaks loose as beloved holiday icons take on a monstrous life of their own, laying siege to the fractured family's home and forcing them to fight for each other if they hope to survive.

Featuring a cast that includes Adam Scott, Toni Collette, David Koechner, and Allison Tolman, "Krampus" was helmed by Michael Dougherty, and according to Dougherty, the movie was always intended to have a PG-13 rating. "Krampus" is going for a kind of Amblin vibe, where terrible stuff happens to people but it's not graphic to the point that the rating can change from PG-13 to R. "It's meant to be, I think, a family holiday horror movie, but I don't think parents should go in blind, thinking that it's going to be kid-safe like a Pixar movie, but it is definitely taking a page from really dark fairy tales, like the original Brothers Grimm style of storytelling. Bad things do happen to children," Dougherty said at the time of the film's release.

But, even if a PG-13 rating was always the intention, the MPAA wasn't ready to award the film that rating right away. And that's where "The Naughty Cut" comes in.

We don't have a full list of special features just yet, so you'll have to keep your eyes peeled for those. In the meantime, though, we know that this new cut "restores key dialogue and scenes that had to be trimmed from the original theatrical release in order to appease the MPAA. Supervised by filmmaker Michael Dougherty, this is the definitive version of the holiday cult classic for the entire family to enjoy." In other words: don't expect this to be a drastically different cut full of hardcore gore. You can check out the cover art for the Blu-ray here.